One Battle Won, Cassidy Steps Up Tier 2 Fight

For Uniformed Firefighters’ Association President Steve Cassidy, a victory in an improper-practice case involving an FDNY Battalion Chief taking out his anger over a cell-phone call from a union trustee on Firefighters assigned to sick leave was a good jumping-off point for his drive to improve on a miserly pension benefit for newer union members who become disabled in the line of duty.

The obvious difference between the two situations is that in the first one he looked for relief from reasonable, objective people: the six members of the city Board of Collective Bargaining. To get his members hired from 2010 forward the same Tier 2 disability benefit as those who came on the job in previous years, he needs help from politicians, including a majority of the City Council and State Legislature, Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo. This means that despite having what should be a powerful, persuasive case that an injustice has been done to his less-senior members, he can’t be assured that the issue will be decided on the merits.